A study of the application of the physical hydronomics methodology to assess environmental costs of European rivers

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to check out the status of collected data in European water-related information tools, with the final aim of analyzing the cost to reach the good environmental status in European rivers, from recorded physical and chemical data, within the second law of thermodynamics.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is especially focussed in an economical assessment to account for the environmental costs of water bodies according to the Water Framework Directive. The Catchments and Rivers Network System, the most important information tool in Europe nowadays, constitutes the support of this work. This study shows a methodology to estimate the cost to restore water bodies in energy terms with the help of an aggregated indicator, from physical and chemical characteristics of rivers. More over, energy results are converted later into an economic value. This work presents diverse case studies, starting from Garonne, Rhone, Rhine, Danube, Ebro and Seine rivers.

Findings

Figures show that total environmental costs in rivers with higher flows are more important due to the more quantity of water to be restored. Making a contrast among years with different hydrological behavior, total environmental costs are higher in wet years due to the more availability of water to be supplied that consequently implies higher withdrawals. However, rivers with higher total environmental cost are not necessarily the most polluted ones. Regarding to the availability of data, although European monitoring and reporting is in progress, homogeneity of data and consensus in the management of basins are needed.

Originality/value

Authors make an estimation of costs to reach the good status of European rivers. This work proposes the Exergy as an aggregate indicator to assess cost for water restoration in monetary values. This paper gives a reference of environmental cost as an important instrument to establish costs recovery prices, to be used in the management of water resources as a complement of other kind of indicators.

Citation

Uche, J., Martínez, A. and Carrasquer, B. (2014), "A study of the application of the physical hydronomics methodology to assess environmental costs of European rivers", Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 324-334. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEQ-12-2013-0136